10/20/2013-Hut One! Hut What!?

How many Indians are on the Washington Redskins football team and the Cleveland baseball team? How many chiefs play on the Kansas City NFL franchise; how many braves play professional baseball in Atlanta? If we’re going to name a sports team after other human beings, we should reflect reality like my cartoon says.

It’s almost always best to name a team after an animal. My favorite is the University of California at Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. Other team names are neutral, not offending man nor beast like the college teams Red Tide and Red Storm. I know a red tide can poison shellfish and make them inedible, but I have no idea what a red storm is. Naming a team after an article of clothing is safe, Red Sox should offend nobody unless they’re beating the Yankees, who, by the way, are Yankees because they are based in the North.

Brewers brew beer and Dodgers dodged trolley cars in Brooklyn. What do Packers pack, meat? There are certainly more descendants of Vikings in Minnesota than almost any other state. Angels might not be angelic or deceased and no one on the Giants is over 8 feet tall, but the names don’t offend. As long as we're being picky, I question how many Mariners know how to sail a boat?